Upper Bound for the Coefficients of Chromatic polynomials

Shu-Chiuan Chang

Published 2001-02-27Version 1

This paper describes an improvement in the upper bound for the magnitude of a coefficient of a term in the chromatic polynomial of a general graph. If $a_r$ is the coefficient of the $q^r$ term in the chromatic polynomial $P(G,q)$, where $q$ is the number of colors, then we find $a_r \le {e \choose v-r} - {e-g+2 \choose v-r-g+2} + {e-k_g-g+2 \choose v-r-g+2} - \sum _{n=1}^{k_g-\ell_g}\sum_{m=1}^{\ell_g-1} {e-g+1-n-m \choose v-r-g} - \delta_{g,3}\sum_{n=1}^{k_g+\ell_{g+1}^*-\ell_g} {e-\ell_g-g+1-n \choose v-r-g}$, where $k_g$ is the number of circuits of length $g$ and $\ell_g$ and $\ell_{g+1}^*$ are certain numbers defined in the text.